Saturday, October 8, 2011

Highland Park Diner

Something amazing happened yesterday--I ate two meals out with my husband ... alone! The first was breakfast. I was on the way to an event at city hall, and he had a late morning meeting, so we found time to eat at a place we had yet to try: Highland Park Diner.

First, let's go with the obvious: this place just looks super cool. It is a true diner with one wall of little booths and a counter in a train-car set up. I don't know why we never made it there before, but it's worth going just for that!

Now, onto the food ...

In my growing years, I've become a breakfast basics girl when I eat out: two eggs over easy, some meat, some potatoes (preferably hash browns, but so few places do them anymore :( this is the only thing I miss about Waffle House: crispy, crunchy, 3 am hash browns; I shall now stop before I launch into a Skeeter's reverie), and toast. So, I ordered the Park Special with ham, wheat toast, and home fries (insert sigh to express once again my deep hash brown ennui). The eggs were delicious and huge; the ham was perfectly salty and warm; the home fries has some crispy bits; the wheat toast was buttery. Lovely.

My husband is more breakfast-adventurous. He ordered off the specials menu: Chicken Caprese Omelette. It, too, came with home fries and toast. (Another second sigh, this one from behind me; he just started reading over my shoulder and is jumping on the hash browns bandwagon. It's become clear that mon madeleine est George Webb's hash browns.) This was quite some omelette: huge fluffy eggs stuffed with grilled chicken, large leaves of fresh basil, fresh tomatoes, and topped with two thick slices of buffalo mozzarella. If he had a complaint, it would be that the mozzarella was too thick; it stayed a bit chilly rather than melting wonderfully sloppily over this creation. Somehow, he muddled through.

Of special mention at the HPD is the service, which was otherworldly. My husband placed his full coffee cup ever-so-slightly off to the side so that he could dig in to his omelette, and literally within seconds, our server appeared to refill it. Amazing! And, the coffee was quite good--super hot, strong, and crisp.

We walked out having spent under $30, inclusive of an extra-large coffee-induced tip, and will definitely be back for dinner! If you live in the ROC, you might be interested to know that--according to a sign that drew our attention--HPD has something going with the Cinema across the street: buy dinner at HPD and get a free movie ticket. We're in!!